Federal IT managers are under pressure to move beyond the evaluation of cloud computing and into actual implementation. Two early adopters in government next week will share their insights on how to do that.NASA and the National Cancer Institute will take part in an InformationWeek Government panel titled "Strategies for Creating an Internal Cloud" on June 9 at the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, D.C. The speakers include Myra Bambacus, senior advisor to the CIO at Goddard Space Flight Center and Goddard's center lead for cloud computing; Ken Buetow, associate director of informatics and IT for NCI and director of the National Center for Biomedical Informatics and IT; and Marv Langston, former deputy CIO at the Department of Defense and now an IT consultant to DoD and federal agencies.

Each of these experts brings unique first-hand perspective to the topic of private clouds in federal government. Goddard represents the next phase of NASA's broadening cloud deployment, building on the Nebula cloud platform first deployed at NASA's Ames Research Center. Bambacus will discuss that activity and other potential uses of cloud services at Goddard.

Buetow is leading an effort to use cloud computing to share data among cancer researchers in government, the private sector, and universities. He will talk about the technology, processes, and objectives behind the project, called caBIG. For background, see Michael Biddick's recent piece, "National Cancer Institute Develops A Research Cloud."

Langston views cloud computing as the next megatrend, what he calls "Wave 3," in government IT. He will discuss the challenges and opportunities this new way of doing things presents to the military and other government agencies.

I'll be moderating this one-hour panel discussion, and I invite government IT pros to join us. It's part of a half-day event, titled "Making The Private Cloud Real" and sponsored by Hewlett-Packard and Intel, that's geared toward helping IT decision makers in federal government move ahead. You can see the agenda and register here.

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